Flat tire ends Osky run early

July 18, 2018

In capturing his 84th career victory Wednesday night, Rodney Sanders dominated the USMTS Hunt for the Casey’s Cup main event, leading all 30 laps of the 11th Annual Summit Racing Summer Classic at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

It had been seven years since the series fired up at “The Monster” and the win gave “The Sandman” another new race track to add to his list of conquests.

A pair of cautions flags on laps 17 and 21 only served to give false hope to Sanders’ pursuers as he was able to pull away on each ensuing restart before crossing beneath the checkered flag with, according to Sanders, “about two laps left” on his right rear tire.

Stormy Scott held off his twin brother Johnny Scott to claim the runner-up finish while Terry Phillips and Lucas Schott finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Tire issues plagued the field in the main event. Both O’Neil and Town ducked into the pits for fresh rubber during the lap-17 caution and both found their way back to the front for top-10 finishes. Others were not so fortunate, including USRA Modified national points leader Darron Fuqua who fell out with four laps to go while running fourth.

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The touring USMTS titans take Thursday off as they get set to join the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at the 8th Annual Imperial Tile Silver Dollar Nationals this Friday and Saturday, July 20-21.

Both divisions will compete in double qualifying heat races on Friday with a pair of 20-car qualifying features for the USMTS Modifieds that will lock in eight drivers from each into Saturday’s $8,000-to-win championship race.

Showing finishing position, starting position in parentheses, car number, driver, hometown, chassis/engine builder, laps completed and money won. The top 12 in heat race passing points advance to the Casey’s General Stores “A” Main with the top 8 redrawing for the first 8 starting spots.